


A Night in the Forest

by edriss



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:33:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28780548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edriss/pseuds/edriss
Summary: Katie gets dragged into the forest one night and is not happy about it.
Kudos: 1





	A Night in the Forest

"Isn't this a little dangerous?" Katie asked, pulling her fur-lined robes tighter around her. She hated that Angelina always talked her into doing this kind of stuff with the twins. She was just lucky Katie was such a good friend. If Angelina didn't have such a huge crush on Fred, Katie probably would have bailed by now.

"It's fine," George promised her. "We do this all the time."

"All the time," she repeated flatly. Somehow she found that hard to believe. The more time she spent with the twins, the more she thought most of their stories had been greatly exaggerated.

Still they continued through the forest until they came to a clearing. At that point it was obvious that _someone_ came out here all the time because there was a small fire pit with wood in it.

"Ta-da!" Fred announced, sweeping his arm to indicate the clearing and it's fire pit.

"It's exhilarating," Katie mumbled under her breath. Angelina shot her a dirty look before heading to take a seat by the ring of rocks.

"Let's light it up!" Angelina suggested, pulling out her wand. She didn't wait for anyone to argue before saying _Incendio_. A jet of fire sprouted from her wand and lit the sticks in a bright blaze.

"Perfect!" Fred and George said at the same time and sat down as well. Katie couldn't help but notice that Fred squeezed onto the rock bench next to Angelina while George took the one opposite them. Katie finally sat on an empty bench and stared into the fire.

"Now what?" she asked, still annoyed at this whole adventure. "Do we tell ghost stories or something?"

Fred shrugged. "I don't know, normally we bring some marshmallows but _somebody_ forgot to go to the Kitchens before we left."

"Sorry," George apologized. "I thought it was your turn!"

"It was definitely you're turn," Fred countered. The twins bickered back and forth for a little longer. Neither seemed to concede to the mistake but the argument petered out just the same. Katie watched as Angelina shifted a little closer to Fred. She wished she had just stayed in her nice comfy bed instead of coming out her in the middle of the night to sit by a fire. She already felt like a third wheel, even though this wasn't a date and George was here too.

"Ever run into any centaurs out here?" She asked, just to make conversation.

"Oh sure," George said. "All the time."

"All the time," Katie repeated again. "You guys say that a lot." She paused and looked between the twins. "Have you ever actually been in this forest before?"

"Oh sure sure," Fred said, but didn't sound too convincing.

Katie narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"Did you make this fire pit?"

"Uh... no actually. We just found it here once," George admitted.

"How exactly did you find it here?"

The twins looked at each other for a moment. They seemed to be having a silent conversation.

"We have a map, you see," Fred finally explained. "It's kind of enchanted. It shows us all these secret passageways and other cool stuff around Hogwarts."

"An enchanted map? That's so cool!" Angelina offered. 

"Where did you get it?" Katie asked.

"We found it in the common room," George explained.

"No big deal," Fred continued.

"Just hiding under the carpet."

"Yeah like it was _waiting_ to be found."

They finished together, "Waiting for _us_ to find it."

They were all quiet for a second, the only sound the crackling of the fire.

"That's ridiculous!" Katie finally exploded, throwing her hands up in the hair. "You found a _magic_ , hidden map."

Everyone looked at her like _she_ was the one overreacting.

"It's no big deal," Fred repeated. "It's helped us out a lot over the years."

"Well, let's see it then." Katie held out her hand expectantly. The twins both shook their heads.

"Absolutely not. It's kind of a secret."

"Don't trust us?" Katie mocked.

"Nope," they said at the same time.

Angelina leaned back and looked offended.

" _You_ are too skeptical," George said, pointing at Katie. "And you are her best friend," he gestured to Angelina.

"That's it!" Katie was annoyed and, frankly, a little cranky. No matter how much she loved Angelina, she couldn't sit here and take another moment of this craziness. She stood up. "I'm out of here."

"Wait!" George called after her. She had already taken half a dozen strides to the end of the clearing. "You can't leave! You don't know how to get back."

"Yeah, come on, Katie," Angelina reasoned. "You don't want to get lost in the forest at night!"

"Give me the map and I won't get lost."

"Then how will _we_ get back?" Fred asked, raising his eyebrows like he knew he won the argument.

"I hate all of you."

"Oh that's not true at all," George flung his arm over her shoulders and led her back towards the fire. "You love all of us and are having a great time." His smile was a little crooked, she noticed. Katie sat back down and crossed her arms.

" _Fine_ , but I won't enjoy myself."

"Suit yourself," Fred said with a shrug. He leaned back a little on his seat and stretched out his legs like he was in a for a long stay.

"Now I think you said something about ghost stories?" George recalled. "Because I have a _great_ one, but it's a little scary."

"I'm hard to scare," Angelina piped up. She loved spooky stories.

" _I_ won't be listening," Katie grumbled, though she, too, enjoyed a scary story now and then.

"It's about four friends in the woods at night," George started, waving his hand in front of his face like he was painting a picture.

"On a night just like this?" Katie suggested sarcastically.

George nodded and smiled. "Exactly! Have you heard this one?"

"Every story starts like that, George!" Fred told him. The three of them laughed and Katie couldn't help but smile a little. 

"Well, it was a night just like this in a clearing just like this..." George continued. Maybe Katie would have a good night after all.


End file.
